Local jazz musicians pose for homage to 'A Great Day in Harlem'

By CASEY MCNERTHNEY, P-I REPORTER

Published
10:00 pm PDT, Sunday, May 6, 2007

Jazz musicians, bottom row, from left: Michael Deak and George Griffin Jr. talk to, top row, from left, Dave Holden, Don Berman and Norwood Poindexter. They were among 300 musicians who gathered Sunday at City Hall for a photo called "A Great Day in Seattle" after the famous 1958 photo, "A Great Day in Harlem." Proceeds from the sale of the prints will go to the MusiCares Foundation. less

Jazz musicians, bottom row, from left: Michael Deak and George Griffin Jr. talk to, top row, from left, Dave Holden, Don Berman and Norwood Poindexter. They were among 300 musicians who gathered Sunday at City ... more

Photo: Meryl Schenker/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Photo: Meryl Schenker/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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Jazz musicians, bottom row, from left: Michael Deak and George Griffin Jr. talk to, top row, from left, Dave Holden, Don Berman and Norwood Poindexter. They were among 300 musicians who gathered Sunday at City Hall for a photo called "A Great Day in Seattle" after the famous 1958 photo, "A Great Day in Harlem." Proceeds from the sale of the prints will go to the MusiCares Foundation. less

Jazz musicians, bottom row, from left: Michael Deak and George Griffin Jr. talk to, top row, from left, Dave Holden, Don Berman and Norwood Poindexter. They were among 300 musicians who gathered Sunday at City ... more

Photo: Meryl Schenker/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Local jazz musicians pose for homage to 'A Great Day in Harlem'

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They started to fill the steps of Seattle's City Hall before 3 p.m. Sunday, all waiting for another place in history.

About 300 Seattle jazz musicians were gathered for a panoramic photograph called "A Great Day in Seattle." Photographer Daniel Sheehan's picture was a local echo of the famed 1958 jazz photograph, "A Great Day in Harlem," which featured such legends as Count Basie and Charles Mingus among 57 musicians on a New York City street.

"This is like a dream," he said, after connecting with friends at what looked more like a family reunion. "And there is so much history here."

Holden, son of local jazz legend Oscar Holden, had his first paying gig in 1958, playing the Mardi Gras Grill while still a student at Garfield High School. It was there that he met Sam Cooke, who came to the Mardi Gras after billed at a larger venue. All the big names did that, Holden said.

"It was the in club," he said.

Holden said he was raised on stories of Jackson Street, a Seattle jazz hotbed of nearly three-dozen clubs and dancehalls during its 1940s prime. Ray Charles got his start there, as did Anderson in later years. Quincy Jones -- a jazz icon and producer of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" -- got his first gig at the East Madison Y in 1947. Jimi Hendrix traced his blues background to Jackson Street influences.

"We played there when it was the new Jackson Street, in '58 and '59," said Griffin, a drummer credited with influencing Tacoma rock band The Wailers. "We had a camaraderie back in the 50s."

Seattle's jazz scene still has that sense, said trumpeter Thomas Marriott, who organized the picture.

"We want to demonstrate that Seattle's jazz scene is still very large," he said. "There aren't many places that have the rich talent that we do here."

Places such as Tula's, a Second Avenue restaurant and nightclub, the New Orleans Creole Restaurant in Pioneer Square and the Triple Door feature local artists playing some of the nation's best jazz, he said. Musicians who gathered Sunday said any night of the week, a cluster of them are somewhere in the city, making sounds as good as those heard at the clubs long faded from most Seattleites' memory.

Many of them sprout from Garfield -- a school with an internationally-recognized jazz program. Jones is a Bulldog alum, as is Anderson. Hendrix was also a student in the early 60s, before dropping out. Griffin and Holden were graduates, as were most of the locals who posed Sunday.

"Is there any other high school in Seattle?" Holden asked, giving credit to director Clarence Acox, who is in his 36th year.

Norwood "Billy" Poindexter, son of Seattle Jazz legend Pony Poindexter, said that 1958 gathering in Harlem must have had the same intensity he found on the steps of city hall Sunday.

"This is the first time all the cats I've worked with, I've played with and I've heard about are all in the same place," he said. "The energy we've got here is similar to the rush you get when you're playing: it's intoxicating."